The Long Earth

15

DREAMS OF THE Long Earth, all across the old world. Some dreams were new, and at the same time very, very old…

The mates sat near the car, deep in the bush, drinking beer and pondering the changing world, and the stepping boxes they had all made that were resting on the red sand. Overhead, the central Australian sky was so full of stars that some had to wait their turn to twinkle.

After a while one of them said gloomily, ‘Something clawed Jimbo’s guts out, left him looking like a dugout canoe. You know that, don’t you? It ain’t no joke! A cop went in there too! He came out with his face off!’

Billy, who tended not to speak until he had thought for a while, like maybe a week, said, ‘It’s dreamtime stuff, mate, like it was before the ancestors came here. Don’t you remember what that scientist bloke told us, one time? They dug up the bones of big, big animals all over the bloody place, as big as you like! Big, slow food, but with big, big teeth. All these new worlds under the same sky! And no people to be seen in any of them, right? Like this world before it was buggered up! Just think what we could do if we got out there!’

Somebody opposite the fire said, ‘Yeah, mate, we could bugger it up all over again. And I like my head with a face on it!’

There was laughter. But Albert said, ‘Know what happened? Our ancestors bloody well killed them all, ate them up. They wiped out everything except what we got now. But we don’t have to do that, right? They say the world out there is just like here, except no men, no women, no policemen, no cities, no guns, just the land over and over again. The waterhole here is the waterhole there, all ready and waiting for us!’

‘No, it isn’t. The waterhole’s half a mile over there.’

‘Near enough, you know what I mean. Why don’t we give it a go, boys?’

‘Yeah, but this is our country. This one right here.’

Albert leaned forward, eyes sparkling. ‘Yes, but you know what? So are those others! All of them! I heard the scientist guys talking. Every rock, every stone, all there. It’s true!’

In the morning, the little group, slightly hungover, tossed coins to select the one who would give it a go.

Billy came back half an hour later, retching horribly, arriving out of nowhere. They picked him up and gave him water, and waited. He opened his eyes and said, ‘It’s true, but it’s bloody raining over there, mates!’

They looked at one another.

Somebody said, ‘Yeah, but what about all those creatures I’ve heard about, back in the old time? Roos with teeth! Bloody big ones! Big creatures with claws!’

There was silence. Then Albert said, ‘Well, ain’t we as good as our ancestors? They saw off these buggers. Why can’t we?’

There was a shuffling of feet.

Finally Albert said, ‘Look, tomorrow, I’m going over for good. Who’s with me? It’s all there, mates. It’s all been left there waiting for us, since the beginning…’

By the end of the next day the songlines had begun to expand, as the never-never began to become the ever-ever. Although sometimes the blokes came back for a beer.

Later, there were towns, unfamiliar towns admittedly, and new ways of living, a mix of past and present, as old ways were seamlessly woven into new ones. The eating was good, too.

And later still, surveys showed that in the great post — Step Day migration a greater proportion of Australian Aborigines left Datum Earth for good than any other ethnic group on the planet.